Columns

Right now, an important national conversation is underway in our communities. We’ve all seen the reports of deadly attacks on police officers and excessive use of force by some law enforcement officers. These events have strained race relations and heightened tensions as well as further added to feelings of mistrust between communities and law enforcement. The loss of these lives is tragic, and, like you, I want to see an end to this violence.

As a dammed body of water, Smith Mountain Lake is susceptible to occasional severe flooding.
Be it from a stalled tropical system or spring thaw, abnormally high water does occur. Recent history suggests that AEP has a good grasp on managing the flow of the river and thus the water levels. While there was some flooding upstream during recent major rain events, SML and our neighbors downstream were not severely impacted.

As Americans gets ready to vote, much attention is being paid to what will happen to the beleaguered Republican Party afterward should the result actually be what facts suggest.
For several weeks now, Donald Trump has looked as though he’s about to lead the national GOP over a cliff. His disgusting candidacy has shamed not only himself and his supporters, but has made America an extreme curiosity in the rest of the world.

Next Tuesday is the big day. American voters will go to the polls and cast their ballots. The frightening part of this election is that somebody is going to win.
Back in 2012, I held my nose and voted for Mitt Romney. I did not like Mitt Romney, but I voted for him as the lesser of two evils. I felt that reelecting Barack Obama amounted to committing national suicide and Obama, in the last four years, has not disappointed me. His foreign policy, such as it is, has done immense damage.

It’s a crazy system.” That’s what Bill Clinton had to say about Obamacare recently. It’s not often that we agree on something, but I feel the same way as President Clinton and so do the millions of Americans facing higher health care costs and reduced access as a result of this seriously flawed law.

In this presidential election year, one party’s nominee is plainly unqualified, immature despite advanced age, bigoted, explosive, and running as a “brilliant” businessman despite several bankruptcies and a history of mountainous debt.
The other nominee is supremely qualified, with a proven track record of public service going back decades, devoted both to family and people at large, and has made history as the first woman chosen by a major party for president.

There has been a great deal of hyperventilating in British tabloids about Russia and Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. To see some of their stuff on the Internet, you would think World War III was about to start. Recently I was on a Trump vs Clinton Facebook debate and one person posted an article from one of these publications, I think it was the Dailey Mail, that had him convinced Russia is massing for an attack.

We are a nation of laws. That principle was important to our Founders, and it is rightfully at the very core of our government. In fact, as I travel the Sixth Congressional District, folks continually tell me about the importance of following the rule of law as the best way to govern our country. Too often they have seen laws ignored with little or no consequences for those who break them, and want this to change.